– CWI Professional Players draft set for Monday
The young fast bowling sensation from Berbice, Nial Smith along with all-rounder Kevin Sinclair (also from Berbice) and top-order batsman Akshaya Persaud have been listed among 13 protected players for the Guyana Jaguars franchise ahead of Monday’s Cricket West Indies (CWI) professional Players draft.
The draft will complete the respective franchise teams for the Colonial Medical Insurance Super50 Cup and the West Indies Four-Day Championship via a Zoom meeting.
According to a press release from CWI; “the draft shall be conducted over two rounds and each franchise must pick a player in each round. Based on CWI’s draft structure, each franchise will contract a minimum of 15 players, 13 pre-selected and the two from the player pool during the live draft. The event will be monitored by CWI’s auditors KPMG to ensure that the process is carried out efficiently and smoothly”.
Meanwhile CWI’s Cricket Operations Manager, Roland Holder said,“The draft, now in its seventh (7th) year, demonstrates that CWI remains committed to our professional cricket structure and system, even in these times of uncertainty from the COVID-19 pandemic. The ninety (90) regional players who will be awarded regional franchise contracts, will be able to train and practice professionally as CWI hopes for a return to regional cricket later this year.”
For the 2020-21 season, each franchise will be allocated a pick number according to their final league position and performance of the franchise in the 2019-20 West Indies Championship. They will have 90 seconds in each round to make a pick. Where a selection is not made within this time period, the franchise will miss their turn and will have to wait until all of the other Franchises have made their selection in that round, before making its selection.
The CWI Board of Directors has agreed that the requirement to contract at least two players from outside of the Franchise territory will not apply to the 2020/21 season. In keeping with a wide range of short-term recommendations from the CWI Financial Strategy Advisory Committee that were approved by the Board of Directors at the end of May, all contracts will be awarded for a 6-month term, at a 50% reduced value.
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